While speculation was rife, Iran lifted the veil on the crash of Ukraine Airlines Boeing 737 in Tehran. On Saturday January 11, the Iranian army admitted that it had touched the plane by "mistake". The Boeing was taken for a "hostile plane", explains the Iranian armed forces, in a statement relayed by public television, adding that it flew over an area located near a sensitive military site belonging to the Guardians of the Revolution.
The military says the culprits will be brought before a military tribunal and expresses its condolences to the families of the victims, most of whom are Iranians and Canadians of Iranian origin.
Apologizing for the "disaster", Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif speaks of "human error in times of crisis caused by US adventurism".
A sad day. Preliminary conclusions of internal investigation by Armed Forces:
Human error at time of crisis caused by US adventurism led to disaster
Our profound regrets, apologies and condolences to our people, to the families of all victims, and to other affected nations.
💔
Tehran denied until then
This thesis had already been advanced by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. "We have information from multiple sources, including our allies and our own services," which "indicates that the plane was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile," he said at a press conference. .
Tehran had until then denied that the plane had been hit by an Iranian missile.
The Boeing of Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) took off Wednesday morning from Tehran towards Kiev before crashing two minutes later, killing the 176 people on board, mainly Iranians and Canadians.
With AFP and Reuters
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